Saturday – Expo Day, Part 1 of 7 2010 Triathlon Recap:

Post Triathlon Recap Part 1 of 7.  I started writing up a recap of my event, and it kept growing and growing and growing.  I decided to break it up.  The purpose of the recap is give new people the thoughts and ideas they can use to help them prepare for their own future first endurance event!

Part 1) Saturday – Expo Day.

On Saturday, I drove downtown Chicago to the Triathlon Expo. If I told you I was not anxious or nervous for Sunday, I would have a pinnochio sized nose. I was short-tempered with everyone. Getting the car unloaded and into my hotel room was a pain in the neck with all the gear. We decided to park our car at a near-by lot to save a few $$ over the hotel lot. I don’t think I’ll do that again. Although, the theory behind that is, we’d have easy in and out privileges without the hassle of valet. Really, it was more a pain dragging bags across the city than the saving in dollars. So, I think I’ll valet next year.

Going to the Expo was cool. There were tons of vendors. Yet, I was so focused on getting my race packet, my body-marked, my free goodie bag, swim-cap, and attending a course-talk. I didn’t really let myself enjoy the Expo as much as I could have. I didn’t feel like mingling and hearing people’s spiels and product pitches. I had the dog-grip Triathlon focus. What did I need to do to finish comfortably, safe, and above average. That was the soul thing on my mind! I will say I’m glad I went a little early, because many of the vendors did sell out of the cool merchandise like race-chip holders and race-bands. There were tons of free samples and food. Next year, I’d love to get there a little earlier to hear an early version of the course-talk. Then that can give me some more time to relax and enjoy the expo. Once I heard the course-talk, I was much more at ease.  I had better expectations for the race.

Saturday evening was fun. My wife and my two kids walked around Chicago and met my brother and his family for dinner at Maggiano’s. It wasn’t quite the rest/recovery day I was expecting. I was so tired after chasing a 2 year old girl and 5 year old boy around downtown. Dinner was good as expected. I’d do that again. Getting pasta the night before was an excellent idea. I was little worried I ate too much, but I don’t think that was the case.

Okay. Skip this section if you get grossed out.

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One thing that, and I talked to a few other triathletes, was unexpected was the nervousness in the gastro-intenstinal area. Let’s just say I needed to visit the restroom multiple times on Saturday, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning before the race. Just funny how race-day jitters come out fine in the end. (puns are terrible I know.)
***

After dinner, as Jen and I were walking back, the Triathlon Hotel is right across from the Chicago Summer Dance area which happens every Saturday during the Summer in Chicago.  Jen and I had been in the past, Its so fun to hear live music under the stars in the city.  It was super fun watching Miss M and Mstr C dance and run around. However, I was so exhausted from walking all day with the stress of my first Triathlon looming, I just wanted to go to bed. I did allow myself some time to take in the atmosphere and even dance a bit with the kids.

Saturday Night, I barely slept. It didn’t help that my kids were wired from being in a hotel and to them it felt like Vacation. I was hoping the dancing would burn off their little energy, but it was the exact opposite effect.  They were ready to party! As I wrote before, I was all business mentally wise. I just wanted to get ready and go to sleep. I was going through my Triathlon checklist over and over again. I put my wristbands on. I put the stickers on my helmet and my bike. I was making some last minute tweaks to Set-up bags. The drawback of having my kids able to see me swim was the lack of sleep. However, I would want them there again.  The value in having family support was well worth it. Can we get separate room?

If you couple the lack of sleep with natural first-timer nerves, you’d think I was a wreck, but I felt laser-focused, but I was very, very testy and short-tempered. My wife and my kids were very nice to put up with my crankiness. I’m very thankful for their support!  Without them, it would not have been as meaningful.

In Part 2, of my 2010 Triathlon Recap:  I’ll write about all the thoughts racing through my head keeping me awake.

Part 1:  Expo Day
Part 2:  Race Day Gear Thoughts
Part 3:  Transition Set-up
Part 4:  The Swim
Part 5:  The Bike
Part 6:  The Run, if you must call it that.
Part 7:  Post Race.  Will I do a triathlon again?

Immensely Satisfying

I’ll do a race recap after I’ve had some rest. I’m so glad I did it this year, and I look forward to an even better time next year. As I said before, when you are a beginner, your first time is always a Personal Best!

As always, how can I help you achieve your fitness goals?

Follow Scott Compete in the 2010 Chicago Triathlon

How to achieve your Personal Best in a Triathlon?

Step 1) Do it! Boom- you just achieved a personal best.

One of the coolest things about being a beginner for a triathlon, is that your first triathlon is a Personal Best Time! So all I have to do is finish on Sunday. No problem.

The not so cool part about being a beginner is the anxiousness, the jitters, and the doubts that I’m having.

Yes, I did do a ton of training. Yet, I didn’t officially follow a training plan. I made my own. Is that good enough? I won’t actually know until I prove it on Sunday.

A couple of things: If you are free on Saturday, The Chicago Multisport and Fitness Expo takes place downtown.

You can go to this website for details: http://www.chicagotriexpo.com/

As I mentioned in my last post, if you are free on Sunday, it would be great to see you, but I know many of you are not able to make it, but still want to keep score at home.

Here’s how: Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/scottstawarz

On Race day, I will tweet out a runkeeper link that you can use to follow along via GPS. Technology is so cool!

Also, you can try to follow along via the Official Chicago Triathlon Results for Scott

Here’s my bib number:
SCOTT STAWARZ #3722
Start Time is 7:52am

Here is the official link for everyone’s Results for the 2010 Chicago Triathlon
Stay tuned for some more Triathlon 101 posts where I will detail my decisions I took good and bad to prepare myself for the Triathlon. I haven’t even started my first yet, and I am already thinking about where my second tri will be.

My year of action continues.

Choosing To Do A Triathlon

Triathlon 101

As I  approach my first triathlon this Sunday.  I am walking through the decisions I made in training for the swim, the bike and the run.

First Step:  Deciding to do a triathlon.

What’s a triathlon like?

Last year, my brother was doing his first ever international (olympic distance) triathlon.  He’d done two sprint triathlons the previous two years. Both times, I was not able to see him compete.

Now, when I played my trombone in a local jazz big band, I was always excited when my family or friends came out to support me.  I seemed to have more energy.  I played better.  I had more fun.  For those times, when no one could come, I always felt a little sad.  When you have a passion, you want to share it.

Knowing how I felt, I decided that I would make sure to see my brother compete in the 2009 Chicago Triathlon.  I was so happy I did.  It was so energizing.  You see all these people (big guys, little girls, big girls, little guys, some fit people, some not so fit people) all smiling as they cross the finish line.  There is this constant hum of the crowd cheering on everyone even if you don’t know them.  Doing a triathlon has always been on my to do list.  After having seen a triathlon in person, I resolved to be out there in 2010.  It was super inspirational just being part of the energy.

At big events, there is usually a pre-event expo, that is open to the public.  At the expo, you can check out the latest gear and vendors pushing their wares.  Many of the big events will have festivities celebrating the competition such as Bands, DJ’s, and food boths.  So, Its definitely an event you can take your kids to and enjoy as a family.

If you have any interest in doing a triathlon, marathon, 10k, 5k, or any event at all,  Here’s your assignment:

Go to active.com or trifind.com, find your nearest Triathlon event, and attend as a fan.  Be there to cheer on the participants or better yet friends.  They love it, and you’ll be inspired.  If you have the time, volunteer to help out.  Without the volunteers, the events won’t take place.

Next post, I’ll talk about choosing a Triathlon Distance.  Why did I skip the sprint and jump right to the Olympic (International) distance?

Triathlon coming soon…

If you’ve been following along, I labeled 2010, my year of action. I was going to take action to achieve my goals rather than just talk about it.

One of my major goals for 2010 was to lose weight and complete an olympic triathlon. I’m only 10 days away.  (Any normal person would be freaking out right now. — I’m in that category.)

Freak out?

I am cautiously confident that I’ll be able to finish. I’m still darn nervous. I am not a fan of cold water. Lake Michigan water temps these days are between 65 and 70. Contrast that with my backyard pool which averages around 92 degrees, and my local lap pool is about 83 degrees. So, the cold water will be a shock. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to do an open water swim. I haven’t had a chance to try on my wetsuit (that’s a story for another day – hopefully a story with a happy ending).  Also, running after biking has been slow for me.

Triathlon Goal!

Yes, my goal is to finish, but of course I want more than that.  I want to beat last year’s average time of 3 hours.  I am not sure I’ll make that.  All of my workout times have been dramatically slower than the 3 hour pace.

Current workout times:

• SWIM:  my (0.93 mile) swim time is about 40 minutes
• BIKE: my (24.8 mile) bike time is 90 minutes
• RUN: my (6.2 mile) run time is closer to 60 minutes.

If your keeping score at home, that’s 3 hours 10 minutes and that doesn’t even include transition times.  So, unless adrenaline kicks in, or wetsuits speed up swimming, or the bike trails I’m riding now are technically more complex and thus slower than the main triathlon course, or a miracle happens, I’m going to miss that secondary goal.  I’m still shooting for 3 hours.  Its good to push ourselves.  After all, trying is better than not trying at all.

Workout challenges:

At some point, we just have to decide.  Change your priorities.  It has not been easy for me.  I battle the workout blahs all the time.  I have to force myself to workout.  I feel good afterwards, but just starting its a challenge.  Exercise isn’t a habit yet.  Having a triathlon race scheduled and paid for since January has really made it easier for me to motivate my workouts.

I struggle mightily with the food still.  I love good food.

More Triathlon observations to come.  I’m finalizing a blogging posting schedule now that my triathlon training will slow down.  I am going to make an effort to continue the exercise habit and stabilize my writing habit.

I wanted to check in with you all. Of course, my question still stands:  How can I help you achieve your fitness goals?  What do you need to be accountable to make your year of action?  I want to help.